The construction fences are now up around the southeast corner of Peachtree and Pharr roads in preparation of beginning of demolition work that will mark the start of development on Mill Creek Residential’s 400-unit apartment tower, across the street from Buckhead Atlanta this month.
This new rendering of the Mill Creek Modera-Buckhead project shows the frontage of the building on Peachtree Road, looking north toward Buckhead Atlanta.
This new rendering of the Mill Creek Modera-Buckhead project shows the frontage of the building on Peachtree Road, looking north toward Buckhead Atlanta.
BuckheadView reported Aug. 22 that Dallas-based Mill Creek had finally closed on the $16.6 million purchase of the 1.1-acre site at the southeast corner of Pharr and Peachtree roads from Buckhead real estate executive Dion Meltzer and his company Meltzer Group LLC.

BuckheadView announced in June 2015 that Mill Creek had under contract the site—presently the home of Promove apartment locating service and a few small tenants on short-term leases—but the purchase of the property did not take place until Aug. 22, according to Meltzer.

Mill Creek plans to break ground early this month on the 21-story project formally called Modera by Mill Creek-Buckhead, according to a report by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Residents could move in by the summer of 2018.

The units will cater to young professionals seeking luxury apartments. The project will include mostly studio and one-bedroom apartments that are expected to lease above the $2.50 a foot rate for most new high-rise apartments in Buckhead and Midtown. Mill Creek is expecting to achieve $2.65 a foot according to the ABC story.

The project will also include about 180 two-bedroom units, a greater focus on bigger units than most intown apartment towers that broke ground during the past year.

Located across the street from The Shops Buckhead Atlanta, Modera Buckhead also will feature 21,000 square feet of high-end retail space. It will also have amenities such as a sky bar, a large demo kitchen for mixology and cooking classes, and an open-air social lounge.

HBA / Hirsch Bedner Associates, known for its work on luxury hotels, is the interior designer. Washington D.C.-based WDG is the project’s architect. Citizens Bank and Santander Bank are

This rendering shows the Mill Creek project at the corner of Peachtree and Pharr roads, with Buckhead Atlanta to the left and looking southeast.
This rendering shows the Mill Creek project at the corner of Peachtree and Pharr roads, with Buckhead Atlanta to the left and looking southeast.
providing the construction financing, according to the ABC.

The tower will blend “the contemporary atmosphere expected of an urban residential community with the refined sophistication of Buckhead culture,” Mill Creek Vice President of Development Harvey Wodsworth told the Business Chronicle. “We want to emphasize a high-end hospitality experience. It should feel like you are living in a luxury hotel.”

On Sept. 2 of last year, Mill Creek showed renderings and site plans for the massive 21-story multi-use development and said it planned to start building in 2016.

The single building of Modera Buckhead, according to the 2015 plans, would be constructed in an H shape to give the visual impression of two towers. It will have two courtyards on either side of the podium, which includes the 21,000 square feet of retail fronting on Peachtree and wrapping around the corner on Pharr Road, and several levels of the parking deck behind that the front units of residential.

Three levels of parking will be below ground and 70 percent will be either underground or hidden behind the retail and residential. The parking decks will have two access points–one on Peachtree Road that will be right in/right out only, and one on Pharr off of Pharr Road at the back of the building.

All of the residential would be above the retail level. There will not even be a leasing office or fitness center on the ground floor, only a residential lobby.

This photo taken Sept. 1 shows the construction fence in place at the Mill Creek site at the southeast corner of Peachtree and Pharr roads.
This photo taken Sept. 1 shows the construction fence in place at the Mill Creek site at the southeast corner of Peachtree and Pharr roads.
The properties just south of the Mill Creek tract on Peachtree—where Grand China restaurant and the Exxon service station had been located for years—were earlier sold to Preserve Properties LLC for another high-rise luxury apartment complex which is expected to soon begin. (Read earlier report on that property here.) That property has been cleared and has been undergoing environmental remediation for the past few months.

The Buckhead project will be Mill Creek’s third project in the city of Atlanta announced and/or started within about a year. The other two are its high-rise Modera development in Midtown at the intersection of Eighth and Williams streets and Modera Morningside, a low- to mid-rise development on Piedmont at Cheshire Bridge Road with apartments and ground-level retail.

Mill Creek Residential is also developing properties other metro Atlanta areas, including Sandy Springs and Cobb County through its Atlanta office, located at 3715 Northside Parkway, Building 200, Suite 725, in Buckhead.

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